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Si J u dJUUlbu Ul JLL The Oldest Independent Student Newspaper in the Nation Thursday March 24 2005 Volume 140 No 8 Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware OH McHale and Minich take presidency Treasurer election results in runoff By Sarah Ottney Staff Reporter In an election featuring anunusually high voter turnout junior Conor McHale and sophomore Andrea Minich were elected as the new president and vice president of WCSA However none of the candidates for treasurer received a majority of the vote so there will be a runoff between sophomore Bobby Haddad and freshman Sam Harold on Wednesday McHale and Minich won with about 54 percent of the vote About 750 students voted for president and vice president which is about a 40 percent turnout About 700 students voted for treasurer McHale said he and Minich are ecstatic to have won Were excited that students put their confidence in us he said This election provesstudents are concerned about the lack of community here andstudent retention Our platformacknowledges these issues This is only the beginning of the change Election PresidentVice President McHaleMinich SharpeHollis OwenMatthews Treasurer Haddad Harold Raksakul Warren Faculty approves use of weighted grading scale By Allison Wood Staff Reporter Grades at Ohio Wesleyan are about to gain some weight The faculty voted unanimously by voice vote to change thegrading scale to weight pluses andminuses at their monthly meeting Monday night The changes will take effect during the 200607 school year Before the vote Bart Martin Academic Policy Committee chair answered questions from faculty members He emphasized that despite the changes to the grading scale students must still earn a 20cumulative GPA to graduate Under the new scale a 20 is a C average currently students only need aCaverage to graduate Martin also said grades earned prior to fall 2006 when the change takes effect will not be reconfigured to adhere to the new scale At the meeting sophomore Inside This GLDT conference Vietnam mission trip Junior Liz Stockdale Kelly Heil Alltime Weeks Issue coming Saturday makes the news crowned Miss OWU scoring leader r t Pcqo3 Prg5 Pco C Pcgo 10 we are planning for next year Minich agreed We are beyond excited she said This is an amazingopportunity We pay too much to go here to not be completely happy Conor and I are going to make good things happen Sophomore Jason Ramsey who manned the voting table for a few hours yesterday said it seemed like there was always a line of students waiting to vote Throughout the day there was just a solid stream of people he said Usually it comes in rushes but yesterday there was always five or six people standing there ready to vote Even fiveminutes before the polls closed there were more people coming It was intense Ramsey said he attributed the large turnout to the work thecandidates did to promote theelection I think it really speaks to how much they got out there and spoke See WCSA page 2 Results 548 percent 408 votes 34 percent 253 votes 112 percent 83 votes 36 percent 253 votes 295 percent 209 votes 227 percent 161 votes 119 percent 84 votes Marie Rymut member of the WCSA Academic AffairsCommittee said student opinion on the matter is divided There is no answer she said A lot of students are for it and a lot of students are against it Rymut said WCSA spent a lot of time discussing this issue and was not able to reach a consensus even after talking to otherstudents about it On Tuesday Martin said he was glad the faculty approved the change so overwhelmingly He said he hopes students who may have been against the changes will come to change their minds Im not sure if theres much for students to worry aboutMartin said They the faculty dont have to award plus and minus grades if they dont want to The new scale will also givestudents an incentive to work harder because they will have the chance of earning aplus grade which will actually count Martin said War what is it good for Photo by Kate Shannon The College Democrats organized a protest march Friday in conjuntion with the twoyear anniversary of the start of war in Iraq The front of their tshirts read 31903 the date the war began and the back read RIP 20000 in memory of the estimated total soldiers and civilians killed in the conflict so far It has been two years since President Bush bombed Iraq said sophomore OwenReynolds who describes himself as a strong liberal democrat We want to express not only our sympathy for the men and women fighting over there but also make a strong statement about our disturust in the presidents decisionReynolds said Hopefully it will just make other students think about the war and not just push it out of their minds Controversial bill ignites debate Legislation aims to regulate classroom discussion By Allison Wood Staff Reporter An Ohio legislator hasproposed a controversial law that critics say may limit professors academic freedom The section of the billconsidered the most controversial states professors would be prohibited from persistently introducing controversial matter into the classroom The sponsor of the bill Senator Larry Mumper RMarion said he believed this bill was necessary to ensure that intellectualdiversity is supported and fostered at Ohios colleges and universities according to a letter from hisoffice A representative from Mumpers office said he was not available for comment The bill known as SB 24 states students would not bediscriminated against for their politicalreligious or ideological beliefs when receiving grades on assignments Professors would also beprotected from discrimination when it comes to being hired firedpromoted and granted tenure This bill would apply to allpublic and private universities in the state but at a Feb 22 committee hearing on the bill Mumper said he may change the language toinclude only public universities be 1 r m i V r i y J L I J 1 S 1 cause of concerns raised by those from private universities All colleges and universities would also be required to adopt an academic grievance policy where students have the opportunity to appeal a grade by a professor if they feel they have been wronged a policy Ohio Wesleyan already has on the books Mumper said almost allprofessors have leftwing beliefs and try to indoctrinate students to think this way according to the Jan 27 Columbus Dispatch Eighty percent of so of them professors are Democratsliberals or socialists orcardcarrying Communists Mumper said Our colleges and universities are still filled with some of the 60s and 70s profs that were theantiAmerican group Joan McLean professor of politics and government said in the article she thought thelegislation was misguided and asked who would define which issues could not be discussed No statement in the text of the bill specifies a punishment for an institutions failure to comply with the law Introduced on Jan 26 it is currently going through theSenate Education Committee and has received several hearings Legislation similar to the Ohio bill has been proposed in 12 other states according to the Columbus Dispatch Professors take up the challenge Mumpers bill has been almost universally panned by professors and those in academiaAccording to The Plain Dealer thefaculty senates at several stateuniversities including Youngstown State the University of Akron and Cleveland State University were discussing passing resolutionsdenouncing the bill The American Association of University Professors AAUP which represents professors in all academic disciplines also spoke out against the bill saying it would limit academic freedom In a statement on their website they said they do not tolerateprofessors who try to indoctrinate their students but believe this is anissue which should be handled at the university level McLean said instances where professors use their postition to promote their beliefs and criticize others is unfortunate and wrong but it shouldnt be an excuse for politicians to limit all professors academic freedom We would rather risk theinstances where its misused than See Mumpers Bill page 2

Si J u dJUUlbu Ul JLL The Oldest Independent Student Newspaper in the Nation Thursday March 24 2005 Volume 140 No 8 Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware OH McHale and Minich take presidency Treasurer election results in runoff By Sarah Ottney Staff Reporter In an election featuring anunusually high voter turnout junior Conor McHale and sophomore Andrea Minich were elected as the new president and vice president of WCSA However none of the candidates for treasurer received a majority of the vote so there will be a runoff between sophomore Bobby Haddad and freshman Sam Harold on Wednesday McHale and Minich won with about 54 percent of the vote About 750 students voted for president and vice president which is about a 40 percent turnout About 700 students voted for treasurer McHale said he and Minich are ecstatic to have won Were excited that students put their confidence in us he said This election provesstudents are concerned about the lack of community here andstudent retention Our platformacknowledges these issues This is only the beginning of the change Election PresidentVice President McHaleMinich SharpeHollis OwenMatthews Treasurer Haddad Harold Raksakul Warren Faculty approves use of weighted grading scale By Allison Wood Staff Reporter Grades at Ohio Wesleyan are about to gain some weight The faculty voted unanimously by voice vote to change thegrading scale to weight pluses andminuses at their monthly meeting Monday night The changes will take effect during the 200607 school year Before the vote Bart Martin Academic Policy Committee chair answered questions from faculty members He emphasized that despite the changes to the grading scale students must still earn a 20cumulative GPA to graduate Under the new scale a 20 is a C average currently students only need aCaverage to graduate Martin also said grades earned prior to fall 2006 when the change takes effect will not be reconfigured to adhere to the new scale At the meeting sophomore Inside This GLDT conference Vietnam mission trip Junior Liz Stockdale Kelly Heil Alltime Weeks Issue coming Saturday makes the news crowned Miss OWU scoring leader r t Pcqo3 Prg5 Pco C Pcgo 10 we are planning for next year Minich agreed We are beyond excited she said This is an amazingopportunity We pay too much to go here to not be completely happy Conor and I are going to make good things happen Sophomore Jason Ramsey who manned the voting table for a few hours yesterday said it seemed like there was always a line of students waiting to vote Throughout the day there was just a solid stream of people he said Usually it comes in rushes but yesterday there was always five or six people standing there ready to vote Even fiveminutes before the polls closed there were more people coming It was intense Ramsey said he attributed the large turnout to the work thecandidates did to promote theelection I think it really speaks to how much they got out there and spoke See WCSA page 2 Results 548 percent 408 votes 34 percent 253 votes 112 percent 83 votes 36 percent 253 votes 295 percent 209 votes 227 percent 161 votes 119 percent 84 votes Marie Rymut member of the WCSA Academic AffairsCommittee said student opinion on the matter is divided There is no answer she said A lot of students are for it and a lot of students are against it Rymut said WCSA spent a lot of time discussing this issue and was not able to reach a consensus even after talking to otherstudents about it On Tuesday Martin said he was glad the faculty approved the change so overwhelmingly He said he hopes students who may have been against the changes will come to change their minds Im not sure if theres much for students to worry aboutMartin said They the faculty dont have to award plus and minus grades if they dont want to The new scale will also givestudents an incentive to work harder because they will have the chance of earning aplus grade which will actually count Martin said War what is it good for Photo by Kate Shannon The College Democrats organized a protest march Friday in conjuntion with the twoyear anniversary of the start of war in Iraq The front of their tshirts read 31903 the date the war began and the back read RIP 20000 in memory of the estimated total soldiers and civilians killed in the conflict so far It has been two years since President Bush bombed Iraq said sophomore OwenReynolds who describes himself as a strong liberal democrat We want to express not only our sympathy for the men and women fighting over there but also make a strong statement about our disturust in the presidents decisionReynolds said Hopefully it will just make other students think about the war and not just push it out of their minds Controversial bill ignites debate Legislation aims to regulate classroom discussion By Allison Wood Staff Reporter An Ohio legislator hasproposed a controversial law that critics say may limit professors academic freedom The section of the billconsidered the most controversial states professors would be prohibited from persistently introducing controversial matter into the classroom The sponsor of the bill Senator Larry Mumper RMarion said he believed this bill was necessary to ensure that intellectualdiversity is supported and fostered at Ohios colleges and universities according to a letter from hisoffice A representative from Mumpers office said he was not available for comment The bill known as SB 24 states students would not bediscriminated against for their politicalreligious or ideological beliefs when receiving grades on assignments Professors would also beprotected from discrimination when it comes to being hired firedpromoted and granted tenure This bill would apply to allpublic and private universities in the state but at a Feb 22 committee hearing on the bill Mumper said he may change the language toinclude only public universities be 1 r m i V r i y J L I J 1 S 1 cause of concerns raised by those from private universities All colleges and universities would also be required to adopt an academic grievance policy where students have the opportunity to appeal a grade by a professor if they feel they have been wronged a policy Ohio Wesleyan already has on the books Mumper said almost allprofessors have leftwing beliefs and try to indoctrinate students to think this way according to the Jan 27 Columbus Dispatch Eighty percent of so of them professors are Democratsliberals or socialists orcardcarrying Communists Mumper said Our colleges and universities are still filled with some of the 60s and 70s profs that were theantiAmerican group Joan McLean professor of politics and government said in the article she thought thelegislation was misguided and asked who would define which issues could not be discussed No statement in the text of the bill specifies a punishment for an institutions failure to comply with the law Introduced on Jan 26 it is currently going through theSenate Education Committee and has received several hearings Legislation similar to the Ohio bill has been proposed in 12 other states according to the Columbus Dispatch Professors take up the challenge Mumpers bill has been almost universally panned by professors and those in academiaAccording to The Plain Dealer thefaculty senates at several stateuniversities including Youngstown State the University of Akron and Cleveland State University were discussing passing resolutionsdenouncing the bill The American Association of University Professors AAUP which represents professors in all academic disciplines also spoke out against the bill saying it would limit academic freedom In a statement on their website they said they do not tolerateprofessors who try to indoctrinate their students but believe this is anissue which should be handled at the university level McLean said instances where professors use their postition to promote their beliefs and criticize others is unfortunate and wrong but it shouldnt be an excuse for politicians to limit all professors academic freedom We would rather risk theinstances where its misused than See Mumpers Bill page 2